The excuses given about eDiscovery and unspecified "legal" reasons are specious in the extreme.

eDiscovery would be covered by the use of the standard "trash" facilities - putting the data into a hidden bin for a set amount of time. It would also be covered by the fact that you would only be deleting YOUR COPY of a conversation, it would be up to the other person to also delete their copy if you wanted it totally gone. This is absolutely standard.

Legal hold would cover all remaining legal requirements I would think.

What is more ridiculous is that you CAN delete INDIVIDUAL items in your own side of a conversation, but you cannot delete your copy of someone else's side of the conversation, nor can you delete a range of items.

What also isn't mentioned is data retention. Forcing data to be retained when it is no longer required or is no longer accurate is also against the law in many regions.

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For this item, we’re making great progress. It has now entered TAP validation with a small group of tenants. Will let you know how that goes!